In October I asked people to tell me the short story that Speaking of Love‘s paperback cover told them. I promised a copy of the paperback to the writer of the story that most appealed to me (see original post here) … and the one that most appealed to me was Richard Gray’s. It’s in … Read More
Mostly Books
Do you live near Oxford (England)?
If you do, and you aren’t already doing something tonight, you might like to come to Mostly Books in Stert Street, Abingdon at 7.30 to hear Eliza Graham and I talking about the effect that the Spread the Word, Books to Talk About shortlisting has had on our writing careers, and how our books made … Read More
Mostly Books, indie bookshops and indie publishers
THIS is the place to go if you want to learn how to sell your book into indie bookshops Last Sunday I and four others spent the day at the table you can just see through the window. We were given delicious and copious cups of tea and coffee all day (rudely I brought my … Read More
Orchids for Simon
I am overwhelmed. This orchid is for Simon at Stuck in a Book for his overwhelming review of Speaking of Love. See The word on … at the top on the right. Orchids, according to Clare Florists’ flower meanings are flowers of magnificence and, although I’m not at all sure what the thanking-for-a-blog-book-review etiquette is, … Read More
Mark Thornton and selling to indies
Mark Thornton’s seminar at the Society of Authors today was inspirational. His fundamental message to writers who want to persuade independent bookshops to stock their books was to think like a bookseller (not like a writer trying to persuade a bookseller to stock her book). And as soon as you start to think like that … Read More
Arvon Foundation and Mostly Books
One hundred years ago I went to Totleigh Barton on my first Arvon course. It was run by two writers, only one of whose names can I remember – David Benedictus (who was famous at the time for his first novel, The Fourth of June). But the thing about Arvon and the writers who teach … Read More
Selling a First novel, and writing
I’ve been thinking about Mostly Books ever since I typed ‘sell my novel’ into Google (it came up with 15,500,000 sites so I don’t know now how I happened upon Mostly Books, but I am so glad I did). Because I discovered that Mark Thornton at Mostly Books runs a course which gently explains to … Read More